NZ film takes a chill pill

New Zealand film will finally relax and look on the bright side of life thanks to a new funding initiative Blue Harvest Shorts.

New Zealand film will finally relax and look on the bright side of life thanks to a new funding initiative Blue Harvest Shorts.

Blue Harvest Shorts has a funding pool of $180,000 over the next year, which it plans to split between two short films that have mass-market appeal.

The Blue Harvest team - filmmaker Media Design School senior 3D lecturer Paul Swadel, Hollywood veteran Steve Barr and ex-NZ Film Commission Distribution Manager Daniel Story – are not pulling any punches when it comes to the tone of the films they are interested in: No dark, brooding, melancholic, depressing art-house films please!

Swadel said it is all about providing opportunities for highly-skilled filmmakers to make the leap into successful feature film-making and move away from the lingering dark and moody tone of the New Zealand film industry.

“We are keen on high-concept genre shorts because they are a solid stepping stone into commercial features,” says Swadel. “NZ is a small place and we need to be making films that have an eye on the world market’.”

Budding filmmakers should prepare their pitch, the hunt is on for kick-ass scripts, enthusiastic highly skilled teams and commercial appeal. Applications are open from now until October 5. Greenlit projects will be announced in early 2013.